EIGHT FACTS ABOUT CIVIL CLAIMS AGAINST NYC

1. The number of sidewalk injury claims has dropped. Fewer claims were filed in 2000 (the most recent year data is available) than there were in 1993.



2. The average payout to victims of a sidewalk-related injury was down 34.1% from 1993 to 2000.



3. Total claims payouts are up only because the City is finally catching up on a huge backlog of cases, not because more people are filing suit-just as Price Waterhouse predicted in a 1998 report.



4. According to the Daily News, the average payout to a victim for a sidewalk-related injury was $10,000.



5. The Daily News found that the majority of claims were filed by seniors, "who are more likely to fall and more likely to be seriously injured when they do."



6. Maps prepared by the Big Apple Pothole and Sidewalk Protection Committee are created by Sanborn Map Company, one of the nation's premier mapping organizations. The maps use symbols developed by Sanborn to show potholes, cracks, and other defects that give the City notice of a problem. Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger said that Big Apple provides "a valuable service."



7. Just because a defect is on a Big Apple map doesn't mean the injured person wins their case. They still have to prove that the City's failure to fix the defect was negligent, for an unreasonable period of time, and that the defect caused their injuries.



8. Only 2% of all injured people end up filing a lawsuit, according to a national study by the RAND Institute.



DON'T LET MAYOR BLOOMBERG

CLOSE THE DOORS OF JUSTICE